


Watching the Detective

by needles



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crime Scenes, Ereri Week, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-31
Updated: 2015-07-17
Packaged: 2018-04-02 06:18:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4049383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/needles/pseuds/needles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the Pining prompt day 1 Ereri Week 2015.<br/>They say you should write what you know so since all my previous fanfic was crime fiction I decided to stick with that for the first prompt.<br/>Forensic Athropologist Eren would like nothing more than to examine the body of cynical homicide detective Levi, but it's very much a work in progress, slow progress.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

A flicker of irritation crossed his face as the strident ringing interrupted his reading.

"Jaeger."

"Don't sound so grouchy Dr Jaeger, I have something that will cheer you up."

"You're retiring?"

"How could you? I'm hurt," the voice at the other end declaimed dramatically.

"Erwin, you have a skin like the hide of an elephant, you'll live. Now tell me why you're interrupting my work?"

"Tch! So little respect for your boss!"

"A boss who hit on me ten minutes after I started working here!"

"But you were so cute."

"Well, why did you interrupt me? ....I'm still waiting."

Erwin could hear the sound of fingers drumming on the desk at the other end of the line. He sighed. "Ok. Ackerman has another present for you, he's on his way to the lab with it now."

"Thank God! I was bored out of my skull."

"I thought you were working?"

Jaeger grimaced, "On paperwork!"

"Necessary paperwork."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Ok, I'd best get the lab prepped, bye Erwin."

Erwin grinned as he heard the click, killing the call. 

 

Detective Levi Ackerman 34, cynicism going on 100, glared at the rookie cop ostensibly guarding the crime scene. A long humid night and no breakfast had left him tired, his feet aching and his heartburn acting up.

"Put that out! And not on the ground either, you'll fuck up the forensics. He tossed a pocket ashtray across. "Use that, you can keep it." The young cop caught it one-handed a startled look on his face.

"Good reflexes," muttered Levi under his breath.

"We're ready to go sir," the technician called to him. He nodded and made his way to his car.

Two hours later they pulled up at the doors of the forensic lab, rush hour traffic was a bitch. Levi headed inside, flashing his ID at the security guard, who gave him a familiar nod. It wasn't his first visit by a long way, nor would it be his last, unless by some miracle humanity lost its penchant for terminating its problems with extreme prejudice.

In the same way that he both loved and hated his job, he loved and hated the lab. His job brought him into daily contact with the worst of human pond scum, but catching the killers was almost addictive, and he loved that. He loved the lab because it was pure, clean, clinically sterile. As he walked through the doors he took a deep breath and revelled in the faint tang of disinfectant that permeated the place. Every polished steel and glass surface shone amid the soft hum of high tech gadgetry.

And then there was Arlert's room. Full of filthy dirt, bugs and slime that made his skin crawl. Worse still was the knowledge that he had no choice but to enter it at some point on this case. No one else had the expertise he would need to analyse the crime scene, the guy was a genius. Levi just couldn't comprehend how he could live his life surrounded by, and fascinated by that stuff. 

Behind him he heard the technicians bringing in the body, and he silently apologised to the lab for sullying it with death yet again.

"And what have you brought me today Detective?" A cheerful voice greeted him as he approached the examination area. He looked up at a familiar set of green eyes in a smiling face. Not for the first time since he met them a year ago, did he wonder just how these people could remain so positively chirpy dealing with death and decay on a daily basis.

"That's what you are supposed to tell me, isn't it Dr Jaeger?"

"Eren, please," smiled the scientist. "Any hints would be helpful though," he said, snapping on a pair of gloves and unzipping the body bag now resting on the examination table.

"He, we think it's a he, was found in a shallow grave in the forest south of here by a dog walker late last night. That's really all I know so far."

"What would we do without our canine friends, eh?" Eren said, as he gently unzipped and eased back the bag then squinted at what remained of the head. "It is male, probably middle aged, judging by the teeth, and about 5'10" to 6' in height. I'll know more once I can take proper measurements. A shallow grave you say?"

"Yes, about 18 inches down."

"Hmm, from the degree of decomposition I'd say he'd been there 9-12 months but Armin will be able to give us a better time of death."

"Did I just hear my name then?" A slight blonde joined them at the table, an excited look on his face.

"He's all yours Armin, bugs, particulates, any retrievable stomach contents, though I doubt there's much left. You know the drill. Let me know when you're done, I'll examine the remains again then the bones can be cleaned."

Without further ado the entomologist began scanning the body,"Ooooh you little beauty!" Levi cringed as Arlert picked up some creepy crawly in his tweezers and looked at it like a priceless jewel before dropping it into a dish. He was gone already, off in a world of his own.

"Come back to my office Detective, I know Armin creeps you out," laughed Eren.

Levi followed him, shaking his head. "I just don't know how he can handle so much filth. Don't get me wrong he's amazing and we'd never solve our cases without him but...."

"You don't seem to have a problem with the bodies though. Most people find those worse than the bugs."

Levi's brow creased, "Hmm, I guess that's true."

"I think perhaps it's because you care about them, you still see them as people, not a pile of decomposing remains," Eren smiled as he handed Levi a teacup.

A small crease appeared between Levi's brows as he considered Jaeger's words. Perhaps it was true, he'd never given it much thought. He just wanted their deaths not to be meaningless and unexplained. And catch whoever murdered them, that went without saying, he was a cop after all, it was his job. "So do you," he replied, sipping the tea and wondering how Dr Jaeger came to have his favourite brand, it wasn't a common one.

Eren just nodded and sat cradling his own coffee, observing Levi. It was his favourite pastime. He had amassed a vast mental database on the detective thanks to his astute powers of observation. He knew ordinary stuff like his taste in tea, his favourite burger, what brands of clothing he liked, and much more. An experienced nose had revealed Levi's choices in shampoo and cologne as they passed each other around the examination table. Thanks to his specialist skills as a forensic anthropologist he knew just how well defined every muscle beneath that pristine white shirt and well pressed pants was, just from watching Levi move. That and the faintest of limps that only showed up when Levi was tired. The sign, he would stake his reputation on it, of an old ankle break. And he adored every inch of that slender 5'3" frame. He just wanted to run his hands over it, every muscle, every bone and joint, every scar, he knew there would be scars, and then hold it close. He wanted to thaw that icy demeanour and find the warm human being that lived deep within. Nobody could be as good a detective as Levi without compassion.

His assistant Jean thought he was crazy. "He's a grumpy dwarf with a bad attitude! I can't imagine what you see in him," Jean griped.

But Jean was just pissed because Eren had turned him down flat and deflated his ego. Still his work was good and capable assistants were hardly in plentiful supply. Eren smirked to himself, he would probably have no better luck with Armin, his current target. It was no surprise to see Jean hovering around the remains; meticulously bagging, labelling and taking notes for Armin as he extracted every useful sample he could to identify the victim, find out how, when and where he died, and if possible locate the killer.

He switched his gaze back to Levi, "Have you any idea of his identity?" 

"Nothing yet, I'll get the boys to check the missing persons lists for a male fitting his description in the last 12 months, but there will be plenty so anything you guys can find on the body will be a big help." 

Eren nodded. They would be examining every scrap of the remains, if there was anything useful on him they would find it. He would find something to help Levi, if he had to spend every hour of every day examining the evidence.

Brisk footsteps made him look up again, Jean was in the doorway. "Dr Arlert has all his samples, we can prepare the remains for cleaning now."

Eren rose, pulled out fresh gloves and headed back to the table. "What did you get so far?"

"A few bugs that Dr Arlert got excited about, the usual beetle larvae, soils from the shoes, clothing fibres, hair, scrapings from under the nails that could have skin in them, and some fluids from the stomach and the lungs."

"The lungs?" Eren's eyebrows lifted. That was unusual, except in drownings of course. Perhaps the victim had some form of respiratory disease. Erwin would be examining what remained of the soft tissues later. If the pathologist found something like that it would probably help to confirm ID.

"Which bugs did Arlert get eager about this time?" Levi asked. He knew these were likely to be the most diagnostic ones when it came to solving the case. The beetles were good for dating and all but they were pretty much found everywhere.

"Ephydra hians."

Levi looked at him, one eyebrow raised. He would have sworn Jean smirked.

"Brine Flies" Eren clarified, with a slightly irritated glance at Jean, he knew full well what Jean was trying to do.

 

Levi tried to keep out of their way, it wasn't strictly necessary for him to watch but he liked to get his information first hand and as soon as possible, not wait for the written reports. He also found it compelling watching Dr Jaeger at work. His sharp green eyes scanned the corpse, now freed from the body bag entirely. His slender gloved fingers skimmed lightly across the remains and he methodically recited every relevant fact, as Jean noted up the report sheet. 

He started at the skull, checking for signs of trauma, noting a healed fracture of the nasal bones, a handful of missing teeth and a gold filling. Then he moved down inch by inch. There were clothing labels but they were common brands, an inside pocket yielded some book matches, and a decomposing business card that seemed to be in Chinese. He reached the rib cage and paused, feeling carefully and looking at Levi. "Fractured ribs, several, unhealed, probably perimortem, I'll know for sure once they've been cleaned."

"A punch, or a weapon?" Levi scratched a note in his book.

"Could be either, but I prefer not to speculate until..."

"Yeah I get it, wait till they're cleaned." Levi nodded.

Eren smiled. Then he continued his examination. "Ah!"

Levi craned his neck to see, "What?"

Eren had peeled back the rotting fabric of the pants and even Levi could see the shattered bone of the hip joint.

"A bullet did that." Levi said immediately.

"Almost certainly. It could have been fatal if it severed the femoral artery. Without attention he could have bled to death in under a minute."

The body yielded little other information that was of immediate help so Levi would have to wait for them to work their magic on the samples and bones. Still it was pretty clear it was foul play and he had some scraps to narrow down the hunt for an ID. Time to go back to his office and see what he could turn up there. Much as he liked the peace and cleanliness of the Lab, and much as he liked to watch the younger man work his magic, he had a job to do. 

"Ok I'll leave you to it, call me when you get some results, Eren."

"Will do." He had a beatific smile plastered on his face as he watched Levi depart.

Jean scowled at him, "What's with that idiotic grin?"

"He finally called me Eren."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since one or two of you felt it was worth continuing this here is chapter 2, it's mainly plot but that's the nature of crime fiction. I'll try and work some fluff in further down the line :)

"So you're telling me the bullet didn't kill him?" Levi looked at the shattered fragments that lay on the table where the hip bone should have been. The bones where now a ghostly white, cleaned and arranged like a human jigsaw, one with around 206 unique pieces.

Eren shook his head pointing to the computer display beside them, " No, we checked the trajectory of the bullet for every possible position the victim could have been in at the time and in none of them would it have passed through or even close to the femoral artery. He didn't bleed out from a bullet wound."

Levi frowned, "what about the rib injuries?"

Eren pointed to the cracked bones, "He was hit hard, probably with a blunt instrument, most likely a baseball bat, but again although several ribs were broken none of them looks likely to have punctured a lung. It was severely disabling but not fatal."

Levi hissed in frustration, the guy had been beaten and shot but was still alive, he sounded like some modern Rasputin. "So how the fuck did he die?"

"He drowned."

Four pairs of eyes swivelled round to the tall blond figure in the doorway with a report folder in his hand and Levi's eyebrows shot up, "Drowned? He was miles from the nearest river or lake, and who would beat a guy to a pulp and then drown him?"

"Well detective that's your field not mine, all I know is his lungs show he drowned." Erwin gave a smirk.

"In what?" Eren demanded, his glare telling Erwin that his attempts to one-up Levi were not appreciated.

"In water," as he saw Eren's scowl deepen he added hastily, "salt water to be precise."

Levi snorted, "We are literally a hundred miles from the sea here, how the hell did he drown in seawater? Don't tell me someone dragged him out of the ocean, drove a hundred miles and hid the body in a forest!"

"Seawater wouldn't have been salty enough, the water he drowned in had a salt content of almost 20%, seawater averages around 3.5% salinity."

"Well that would account for the brine flies," Armin, nodded.

Levi looked confused, "Where would you find water that salty?"

"There are several places, Mono Lake, The Dead Sea, any of the soda lakes.." Eren listed.

"None of which are anywhere near here," Levi sighed.

Jean, who had been taking notes for Eren whilst he examined the bones earlier, looked up from his laptop. "What about the old salterns?"

"Salterns?"

"Yeah, they're disused now of course but back in the 19th century  they were used to supply salt for the local area. There are halite deposits around here and they pumped hot water down shafts to dissolve the salts. The brine was then pumped back out and into large open pans to evaporate it. There are some a few miles away. I visited them once on a school history trip and they're full of rainwater now like ponds but they're still very salty."

"Did you see brine flies there?" Armin asked eagerly.

"There were plenty of flies but I wouldn't have known a brine fly from a bluebottle back then," Jean confessed.

"Well it's as good a place to start as any, Jean can you remember the way?" Levi asked him.

Jean nodded, "Yeah, I think so."

"Good, and Armin needs to come to look for the flies, let's get your kit."

 

"Woah! Where's the fire?" A tall androgynous figure sporting glasses and a ponytail leapt to one side to avoid Levi as he barrelled out of the examination room.

He looked them up and down with a faintly puzzled expression and mumbled, "Sorry."

"Ah Hanji, you got the message then?" Eren smiled and picked up the skull of the victim from the table. "Here you go, work your magic on this and give Levi here a face for his murder victim." He passed them the skull.

Hanji peered through the black rimmed glasses at him and a wide smile split their face. "So you're the famous Levi. You're a little cutie aren't you."

Levi drew himself up to his full height and scowled. "Never call me cute, four eyes." He turned to Armin and muttered, "Is that a guy or a girl? I can't tell."

Hanji burst out laughing, "Sweetie some days even I don't know for sure."

"Hanji rejects the gender binary." Armin hastily interjected. "I'll explain it properly later, let's go fetch my stuff."

Levi looked at the artist and nodded, "You prefer neutral pronouns then, I'll remember that." Then he led Armin off to his lab leaving the other three looking slightly stunned.

 

"Ok, Jean is driving because he knows the way, Armin's coming to check on the bugs, I'm going to identify the crime scene, but why are you here?" Levi asked Eren, as they sat cramped together in the back of Armin's tiny European eco-friendly car.

"It would have been lonely in the Lab all by myself," Eren pouted.

"Bullshit, there are plenty of other people there."

Eren gave him a petulant look, "I'm not spending the whole day with Erwin and Hanji's too busy reconstructing the face to entertain me."

"Well don't expect me to entertain you either."

"You always entertain me." Eren smiled sweetly at him.

"Oi! No flirting in the back," Armin ordered. "Eren is here because he's our boss so he has to sign off on our reports, and he knows almost as much about bugs as I do. Two pairs of eyes will be better than one if we want to get finished today, it's already afternoon."

Levi turned to Eren with a scowl. "Why didn't you just say that then?"

"Because teasing you is much more fun."

"You know for a renowned expert you have the mind of a twelve year old!" Levi growled and looked away pretending to study the landscape speeding by, studiously avoiding Eren's amused eyes.

"Mmhmm, that's what people often tell me. But if so it's probably a good thing, twelve year old brains are still at the peak of their development."

Levi just closed his eyes in exasperation, the man was incorrigible.

 

Levi sighed and swatted at another squadron of flies that were homing in on his perspiration. Struggling through the clinging tangles of switch grass that wrapped about his ankles he wondered how the other three could be so stupidly cheerful. Armin was positively aglow at every new bug he spotted, and there were more of those than Levi ever wanted to see again, Jean was gushing over them in an effort to curry favour with his current target, and Eren? Eren was striding through the 3ft high wiry grass as if it was parting before him, whistling some tuneless pop song and with a camera case slung over his shoulder. He had the air of a high schooler on summer vacation. Every now and then he glanced at Levi and smiled wider.

"Am I amusing you Doctor?" Levi snapped, wrenching his foot out of another clump of undergrowth. It was as if the damned stuff was targeting him, maybe he'd been a scythe in a previous life?

"Would you like some help, a piggy back perhaps?" Eren asked in an innocent tone.

He received a glare that could have cut through steel. "I can handle a little grass thank you."

Finally the grass thinned a little and the remnants of crumbling brick walls could be seen. The old salt works, long abandoned.

"Which way are the ponds Jean?" Eren asked, looking around.

"Just beyond those buildings, watch your footing, there's all sorts of stuff just lying about over there."

The area about the old workshops was littered with scrap machinery, rusting iron carts, chains, bits of decaying timber and piles of waste salt. Little grew underfoot here, too much salt had been ground into the soil around the works for even salt tolerant plants like the switch grass to handle.

Behind the walls they saw the evaporation tanks, large rectangular ponds that once would have been filled with white crystalline salt drying in the sun, and now looked to have dried out and silted up with soil and dead vegetation.

Levi walked slowly across to the nearest of them and prodded the surface with his foot. It cracked unpleasantly and turgid water bubbled up from below. The stench of rotten vegetation reminded him of decomposing seaweed on a hot beach. It was foul.

Eren tilted his head thoughtfully. "Looks like the salt has crusted over, it's..."   

"Revolting." Levi finished.

Leaving Jean and Armin to play bug hunters, the two of them strolled slowly down the row of ponds studying the ground carefully. Just over half way along Levi stopped. "I think this is it." Two broad pale streaks gouged into the ground led from one of the ponds towards an open doorway in the nearest hut.

His companion nodded. "Looks like something heavy was dragged back into there from the pond, there look to be some faint footprints on either side as well, I'd say it took two of them to drag him." Eren started taking photographs of the various marks.

Levi followed the trail back to the pond, the edge of which had clearly been disturbed, with a clear dent where the body had been pulled out. The crusty surface of the pond also looked thinner as if it had only just reformed.

"What I can't figure out is why they didn't just leave him in there? Almost nobody comes here and once the crust reformed nobody would see a body in there. What was the point in expending the effort to drag him out then cart the body several miles and bury it?" He shook his head, hopefully they would find that out once they identified their victim. He turned back to check out the hut instead.

"Sorry, I doubt we'll find the answer to that in our lab. Anyhow I need to get a sample from this pond to compare with the analysis of the lung deposits." Eren pulled on a pair of gloves and took a sample bottle from his kit, then headed to the edge of the pool. He knelt down and reached out as far as he could, then pushed his left hand through the crust. When he'd made a hole he picked up the sample bottle in his right and dipped it under the surface. Just as he was withdrawing his sample he felt his knees slide as the edge crumbled beneath him and he toppled into the water scattering broken crust in all directions.

Levi spun round from his contemplation of the hut interior at the sudden yelp and loud splash from behind him. He dashed out to the pond but saw nothing but a black pool of noxious fluid undulating sluggishly in an Eren-shaped scar.  

 


	3. Chapter 3

"EREN! ...EREN!... What the hell are you playing at Eren!" Levi stared at the dark surface of the pond in disbelief.

A dripping green arm brandishing a baseball bat aloft like Excalibur broke the oily surface, followed by an equally filthy and sodden head. Levi jumped back to dodge the slimy drips that flew in all directions as Eren shook the water from his hair. He looked up at Levi with a huge grin as if he was a spaniel retrieving a stick from the pond for his master.    

"What the fuck is that? It looks disgusting, and so do you."

"My guess is this is what they smashed his ribs with," Eren replied, tossing it onto dry land and trying to pull himself out of the pond. The bank crumbled further and he slid back again.

With a sigh Levi dropped his jacket and holster across Eren's kit box and rolled up his shirt sleeves. Then he knelt down and reached out. "Come over here, I'll help you out."

Eren headed for the corner where Levi waited and grasped his hand, hauling himself up with his other arm as Levi pulled. He was almost out when his foot slipped and he fell forward. Luckily his landing was soft. Unluckily for Levi that was because he now had a sodden anthropologist draped across his body like a stranded whale.

"Sorry, are you ok?" Eren apologised as he scrambled off Levi and got to his feet. His face somewhat flushed beneath its coating of salty slime.

"I'll live, I'm not sure about this shirt and pants though," muttered Levi pushing himself to his feet. His front was soaked and streaked with green, his back was covered in dirt.  

Both  stood dripping on the bank just as Armin and Jean rushed up. "We heard shouting, are you....Holy shit you fell in!" Jean doubled over, snorting with laughter.

Armin glared at him. "Jean that's mean. Are you both ok?" he asked anxiously, looking them up and down with obvious concern.

"We're fine, just filthy." Eren reassured him. "I fell in getting a water sample, the bank caved in. Then I slipped and landed on Levi when he pulled me out. But I did find something!" He bounded across to the bat lying on the ground. "I think we have one of the assault weapons. I felt it when I was under the water and managed to grab hold of it."

Jean reached into his bag and pulled out a large polythene evidence bag, holding it out for Eren to slip the bat into. Then he pulled out a sample bottle followed by a short black rod and a plastic cup. He extended the rod, fixed the cup to the end and reached out with it, easily scooping up a sample of water which he poured into the bottle, sealed, labelled and put safely into his bag. All without going one step nearer to the pond.

Levi watched him and then just looked accusingly at Eren, who fidgeted and tried not to look him in the eye. "I just forgot to pack mine, ok? I mean it's not like I knew the bank was weak, and I did find the bat and...."

Levi just shook his head and muttered, "like I said, twelve."

"Well I'm glad you didn't drown but there is one problem." Armin crossed his arms and looked sternly from Eren to Levi. "You're soaking wet, filthy, and both of you stink. No way are you sitting in my car in those clothes, I'll never get the stains or the stench out of the upholstery. You'll both have to strip off."

"I'm not walking back into that lab stark naked!" Levi exclaimed.

Armin raised a hand placatingly. "I brought some hazmat suits, you can put those on. But your clothes go in a sack in the trunk. Or would you prefer to walk back?"

"Get the suits Armin." Eren agreed, and began unbuttoning his shirt.

"Hold it, I'm not stripping out here! We can change in the hut." Levi headed into the ruined building. No way was he taking all his clothes off in front of Armin & Jean, it was bad enough that Eren would see him. His fragile dignity had taken a blow already he didn't want to destroy it entirely.

Eren smirked and followed him. His day was looking better already.

 

Eren felt proud of himself, he stripped his wet clothes off and tossed them into the waiting sack; shirt, pants, boxers, shoes and socks, and pulled on the horrible crinkly synthetic hazmat suit, without peeking at Levi once. His self control deserved to be carved for posterity on Mt Rushmore. Deciding that he could get away without covering his chest, he was a guy after all, he tied the sleeves around his waist. The damned suits were going to make them sweat like pigs in this heat, no need to suffer more than necessary for decency.

Levi removed his shirt and pants. His shoes, socks and boxers were ok, the water hadn't soaked through to his underwear and he hadn't fallen in like Eren so his feet were dry. He pulled on the suit. It was obviously designed as 'one size', that size being 6ft tall. Grimacing he rolled up the legs and cuffs. There was nothing he could do about the over generous body. Picking up his clothes to bag them he had a thought and slid his belt from his pants, wrapping it round the suit instead. At least he no longer looked like a walking barrage balloon.

Grabbing his sack he turned to see Eren just stepping into his suit. Levi felt his face heat up and resolutely forced his eyes away from the scientist. The picture of a tight ass, muscular thighs and lean, toned back however, stubbornly remained etched on his memory as he strode back outside and retrieved his jacket, checking his ID and Glock remained safe and sound.

 

The ride back was every bit as uncomfortable as Levi expected, even with all the windows fully open he was sweating profusely but he refused to pull the top of his suit down like Eren. One half naked passenger was enough, no matter how good he looked despite his hair taking on the appearance of dried greenish straw. Levi wondered just how someone who spent most of their time closeted in a laboratory, out of sunlight and lifting nothing much heavier than a bunch of bones could remain so fit and tanned. He himself worked out as often as he had time for, he needed to be fit for chasing down suspects, and he was by no means ashamed of his body, but compared to Eren he looked like a pasty 7 stone weakling. The rush of warm air from the open windows blasting his hair back made his eyes sting a little and he scowled to himself, sometimes genetics just sucked.

 

They pulled into the Lab parking lot. Armin shut off the engine and turned. " You two go ahead, Jean and I will bring everything in."

Eren hopped out of the car and yelled, jumping up and down.

"Now what's up?" Levi grumbled.

Eren hopped along like a scalded cat. "My feet! They're burning."

"Oh I guess the concrete's pretty hot in the sun," Levi said smugly, strolling past in his shoes.

"Ow!. You could at least sound sympathetic." Eren danced along behind him.

"Want me to carry you then?"

"Would you?"

"Nope."

"You're heartless." Eren pouted.

They finally reached the cool floors of the Lab and Eren sighed blissfully. He lifted his feet to check, they were rather red, underneath a layer of dirt. "We need a shower, follow me Levi."

He led the way to a corner of the lab that Levi had never really noticed before. Two shower cubicles sat there, all polished steel and glass. Eren reached into a cupboard and pulled out two fluffy towels and two bathrobes. He handed a set to Levi. "Go ahead, watch the temperature, these showers are pretty hot."

"Why do you have showers in the middle of the lab?"

"Decontamination. You never know what's going to be on some remains. Sorry about the soap, it smells like disinfectant, because it is."

"But the sides are all glass."

Eren's face broke into a huge grin. "Don't tell me you're shy, detective?"

Levi snorted, "of course not!" and started kicking off his footwear.

 

Levi had to admit he would love to have a shower at home like the one he was soaking in now. A powerful deluge of hot water was scouring the thick soapy lather from his hair and body. He didn't mind the smell at all, he rather liked it, it emphasised just how clinically clean he was now feeling. The water was pummelling his tired muscles too, almost as relaxing as a jacuzzi. It was with some reluctance that he turned off the water and reached out of the cubicle door to grab the towel. At least it was a big towel. He rubbed his hair and upper body before wrapping it about his hips and stepping out.

The other shower was still going, well, Eren was much dirtier than he'd been, he thought to himself, sliding his arms into the soft towelling bathrobe and tying the belt tight. He wondered just what sort of a budget the lab ran on, the robes were top quality like a luxury hotel.

In the other cubicle Eren shivered. He had scrubbed himself down under the hot water, removing every stinking trace of the pond from his hair and body but all the time he was acutely aware of Levi, naked, dripping wet and lathered with soap just a few feet away. Even though he tried not to peek he couldn't help catch the odd glimpse as he turned under the water. Finally he had no choice. He turned the shower to ice cold and gasped as the water hit him, goosebumps sprouting all over his body. No way was he going to step out of the shower until the cold had worked its magic on his over active libido.  

 

They gathered, together with Hanji, in Eren's office for a case conference about an hour after they returned. Eren had changed into spare clothes he kept in the lab and Armin had lent Levi some jeans and a T-shirt. At least they were nearer his size than the hazmat suit, though he had no choice but to go commando till he got home having declined the offer of a spare pair of boxers.

"So Armin, did you find the flies?" Eren asked.

"Plenty, more than one species actually. We got samples of all of them plus quite a few other beetles and flies living round there. We took vegetation, water and soil samples too so we should be able to confirm that it was the murder location without much difficulty as far as bugs and particulates go."

"We'll check that bat out once it's cleaned off but I'm pretty sure it could easily have made the rib injuries. The marks we found on the ground are consistent with a body being moved." Eren added. "So that just leaves us with identity for our victim. What have you got Hanji?"    

Hanji tapped a few keys on the laptop they were using and spun it round so they could all see the screen. The face of a young man stared back at them. "Cute wasn't he?" Hanji said sadly.

"Any hits on missing persons?" Levi studied the screen, there was something slightly familiar about the man but he couldn't quite place it.

Hanji nodded, pressed a key and the screen split bringing up a photograph side by side with the reconstruction. "Marco Bodt, freelance investigative journalist. Reported missing by a colleague 4 months ago. Apparently at first they weren't concerned since he often went undercover for months following up stories, but eventually he failed to make planned contact twice and they raised an alarm."

Levi pursed his lips as he studied the photograph, "Which newspaper did he work for?"

"As I said he was freelance so any of them really, but the missing persons report came from the Daily Herald."

Eren looked across at Levi. "Do you recognise him?"

"There's something familiar about him. My cousin works at the Herald, maybe I've seen him there some time. Anyhow I'd best get over there and see what I can find out about whatever he was working on."

Eren nodded "You think that is connected to his death then."

Levi pushed his chair back and stood up, gathering up his jacket and pistol. "Seems likely, I can get a better idea once I know what sort of story it was. Given his field I doubt it was a sweet and fluffy one."


	4. Chapter 4

"Mikasa? It's Levi."

"Yeah, I'm good. Listen it's about Marco Bodt, you know him right?" Levi wedged the phone in his neck and tossed his clothes, and Armin's loaned ones, into his washer. Loaded the detergent and pushed the buttons to set it rotating.

"Now you know I can't say anything until it's official but yeah it looks that way, sorry. Look, I wanted to call in and find out what he was working on, are you still at the office?"

There was a snort from the other end of the phone and he glanced at his watch. "Ah, sorry I guess I forgot how late it was. Tomorrow morning ok? Great I'll see you then. Goodnight Mikasa."

He shut off his phone and returned to his kitchen, tossing a half thawed frozen dinner into his microwave. His diet went to shit when he was working a case, eating TV dinners or take out at all hours. No wonder he had heartburn, he was probably heading for a full scale ulcer at this rate. He checked the pot then poured himself a strong cup of tea and turned as the microwave pinged.

Poking at his dinner with a fork and washing it down with gulps of tea, he surfed the net for information on Marco. It seemed he had quite a reputation, though pictures of him were sparse and those that existed were blurry. Probably taken with a telephoto lens and enlarged too far. He obviously liked to keep his face out of the public eye. Not a surprise since there were a string of scoops attached to his name, most of which had involved him working undercover. Getting recognised would be dangerous. Perhaps that's where his luck had run out this time round?

Levi stretched and yawned. It was past eleven and he still needed to clean his Glock before he caught some sleep. He couldn't afford for it to misfire or jam at a vital moment and today it had been tossed into the dust. He closed the laptop and took out the pistol, disassembling it swiftly with practiced fingers. He cleaned each part of the mechanism with care and then put them back together. Satisfied that it was dust free and working smoothly he headed to bed, slipping the pistol under his pillow.

 

"Even after what happened today you're still running home?" Armin shook his head. "I pity your feet. Are you sure I can't give you a ride?"

Eren pulled on his shorts and slipped his feet into his running shoes then began lacing them up. "My feet are fine now, it's only a couple of miles and I need the exercise. Otherwise I'll be like one of your cave bugs, all white and bloated."

Armin shrugged. "If you're sure, then I'll see you tomorrow." He turned to leave, waiting for the inevitable.

"Yeah, goodnight Armin, don't let the bed bugs bite."

"And that makes 1723 times you have made that joke," he sighed wearily. "Goodnight Eren."

 

Levi woke to the unpleasant feeling of being trapped. it took his sleepy brain a minute or two to register the fact that he had his face buried in his pillow. Not the most unusual occurrence except that it lay lengthwise beneath him and he was gripping it in a bear hug. A further minute passed before he realised that he felt damp and that dampness was in an area that he remembered all too well from his adolescence.

He pushed himself up and looked down, the drying results of a wet dream were disgustingly evident. He slid out of bed dropped his boxers on the floor and headed for the shower to remove the evidence. Leaning against the wall and letting the water pour over his back he dredged the recesses of his mind for any recollection of whatever dream had inspired his nocturnal emission. His memory was virtually blank, all that came back to him was a vague impression of two green eyes, but who, or what, they belonged to was a mystery.

Giving up his quest he turned off the water and finished his ablutions. He needed to get over to The Herald as soon as possible and now he had to wash his bedding as well.

 

 Mikasa closed the door of her office and drew the blind down over the glass.  

She leaned back against her desk and looked at him, her expression grim. "Since you are on the case I assume Marco is dead."

"We haven't confirmed the ID with dental records yet but I don't think there's much doubt, sorry."

"Dental records eh? So he's been dead a while." She shook her head. "I knew one day his luck would run out on him, it finally happened. I first met him when I was a rookie reporter, he was still on the staff here then, he took me under his wing for a while and taught me a lot. But he got tired of being cooped up here in the end, he wanted the freedom to pick his own stories and follow them through so he went freelance. He was always after the cheats, the swindlers, the corrupt politicians, anyone who was trying to screw the little man. And he was good at it, there are a good many serving time in the pen thanks to him exposing their schemes."

Levi pulled out a notebook. "Any of them get out recently? Revenge is always a good motive for murder."

"I don't think so but I'll look through our database and see who might bear a grudge like that."

"Send me a list. So what was he working on last, do you know?"

"Only the bare bones, he kept his information to himself until he was ready to write the exposé. All I know is it involved doping."

"What, horses?"

"Athletes. He'd heard something about a new drug that was virtually undetectable and had amazing effects, but it also had some very bad side effects. Of course as soon as the authorities got wind of it they would ban it and work on a test for it, but until then however it would be worth a fortune on the black markets."

"So he was trying to track them down and inform W.A.D.A.?"

"He wanted a sample so he was trying to infiltrate the organisation."

"By posing as an athlete?" Levi sounded sceptical.

Mikasa gave a wry chuckle, "he was a bit old for that. No he posed as a coach. He said he'd got a contact, a young runner who's friend had been doped and died. He was prepared to help Marco with his cover story if it would stop anyone else suffering."

"Got a name?"

Mikasa shook her head. "Not a full name, and no address or phone number, but I remember his first name was unusual so it stuck in my head, Farlan."

 

Back home Levi searched the websites of all the local athletics clubs and finally found one Farlan Church. He was 19, a star member of his college track team. It had to be him with a name like that. It seemed that the team were practising every evening in preparation for a major meeting. Well Levi would be in the stands watching tonight. He needed to talk with Mr Church.

He was just sorting out his laundry when his phone bleeped. It was Eren.

"Ackerman here Doctor."

"Levi, please call me Eren."

"Yeah, yeah. So what did you want, fallen in another pond?"

If it were possible to hear eyeballs roll he would have, as it was he just heard an exasperated 'tch!' "Something odd turned up on the toxicology report."

Levi  put his iron down. "Marco's toxicology report?"

"Yes."

"What?"

"Erwin's not sure."

" _Erwin's_ not sure, I thought that guy was a walking biochemical textbook?"

"He usually is, but this is new."

"Ok. I'll be right over, I can fill you in on what I know about Marco's investigation. Looks like it may be relevant."

He ended the call, switched off and unplugged his iron, leaving in on the steel drainer to cool. Folded Armin's borrowed jeans and t-shirt into a bag, grabbed his things and headed for the lab.

 

"Wow! they have creases down the front, haven't seen those since I bought them." Armin held up the crisply pressed jeans and turned them from side to side in amazement."

"It's called ironing." Levi bet Armin hadn't worn ironed clothes since he left home and no longer had a mother to do it for him. At least not judging from the creases that had been evident when he'd lent the clothes to Levi two days before.

"You'd make someone a good wife," Armin giggled.

Levi scowled. "Say that again and I'll feed you to your pet Dermestid beetles."

Erwin clapped his hands. "No fighting please gentlemen. Now as you know there were some strange results on the toxicology tests from our poor victim. No poisons, I hasten to add, but some very peculiar readings for certain hormones and amino acids. Detective, I understand you might be able to shed some light on this?"

Levi nodded, then he recounted what Mikasa had told him about Marco's investigation.

Erwin looked thoughtful. "Doping. I see." He thought for a few more minutes then nodded. "It sounds like it could be a SARM, I'll do some research and see if I can find out which one."

"What the devil is a SARM?" Levi asked.

"A  Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator. It's a class of drugs being researched for a wide range of treatments. There is a lot of potential for treating degenerative conditions like Osteoporosis with fewer side effects than traditional steroids. But because some of them have similar effects to anabolic steroids they are all banned in sport. However new variants are being developed all the time and there are no universal tests for them all yet."

"Sounds like Marco may have got the sample he wanted, but why would it be in his body?"

Erwin gave his shoulder a sympathetic pat as he headed out of Eren's office."Your field again Detective, I'll just try and figure out which drug it is."

 

"So you're going to go watch the track team then?" Eren poured Levi a tea and handed it across the desk.

"If I can get in, I'd rather not make it official, you never know who's involved and I don't want the kid put at risk."

"I think I can help there, I know a few people in the sports department at that college, I'll get us in." He picked up his phone and punched in a number.

"Us?" Levi hissed.

Eren lifted a finger. "Shh. Ah, Connie, hi it's Eren. Yeah I'm fine, how's Sacha? What another one? How many will that be, four? Well give her my best. Listen Connie, could I come over to the club this evening, I gather the team are training. I've got some observations I'd like to make. Yeah, more research. I can, thanks man. I'll be bringing one of my assistants with me for training too if that's ok? Great, I'll see you about four. Bye."

He replaced the phone and smiled complacently at Levi. "All fixed."


	5. Chapter 5

Levi and Eren watched as the students trained, small groups of them working on their own specialised regimes. They had positioned themselves in seats near to the track and Levi studied the runners milling around preparing for a training sprint.

"Have you spotted him yet?" Eren enquired, scanning the field as another group headed their way.

"Not yet, though the picture on the web was a year old and a bit distant so I might have missed him."

"You said he was a sprinter didn't you?"

"That's what it said."

"Well these guys are setting up for a middle distance race so I doubt he's in this group."

Levi looked at him, surprised. "How can you tell that?"

"Two things, their bodies are not built like sprinters and they are not using starting blocks."

"Ok, what about those guys over there?" Levi pointed to a group warming up in the middle of the track.

"Hmm, not so easy to tell till they take the tracksuits off but it's possible, they don't look to have the build of field athletes anyway." As he spoke the group began shedding their jackets and as one student pulled down his hood and unzipped his top Levi's breath hitched.

"Is that him?"

"I think so. The hair is a bit longer but it's the right colour."

They watched as the milers set off on their four laps of the track. The group they had been observing were now practising starts and stretches. As he sat Levi compared the two groups, he thought he could see what Eren meant about build, whilst the miler's were all superbly toned they carried less muscle mass than the sprinters. He figured their training was for stamina and endurance as much as speed. The sprinters on the other hand were all built for explosive power and he could see why a drug that increased that ability would be tempting, especially to them where a fraction of a second made all the difference.

Eventually the mile was over and the sprinters lined up on their blocks. They shot down the track with the sandy haired runner that he was pretty sure was Farlan, a foot in front of his rivals as they crossed the line.

"He's good," Levi muttered.

"Too good to ruin his body with drugs, that's for certain," Eren agreed, pushing himself to his feet. "Grab your notes, let's go play researchers and see if we can make contact with your target."

Levi looked skywards and prayed to all the Gods he didn't believe existed that Eren wouldn't embarrass him too much. He grabbed his pen and clipboard and followed the anthropologist to the trackside.

Eren blithely introduced himself to the students and began asking a bunch of questions about their joints, injuries, training regimes and diet. Levi attempted to jot down notes, playing his part as a trainee as best he could. It amazed him how Eren could sound so knowledgeable about runner's joint problems but he guessed it must be something the man had studied. He had an impressive list of qualifications for someone so young, as Levi had discovered courtesy of a Googling session shortly after they had first met.

He had been right in his identification of Farlan, Eren singled him out and plied him with extra questions until he was the only one still with them. Then he threw Levi a meaningful glance.

"Farlan, Farlan Church I believe?" Levi said quietly.

Farlan looked at him, somewhat surprised at his sudden change of demeanour. "Yeah?"

Levi pulled a card from the back of his clipboard and handed it over. "If you'd like to help us find out who killed Marco Bodt give me a call on that number after training."

Farlan looked at him wide-eyed. "Killed Marco? He's dead, shit! What happened?"

"Not here, call me later and we'll meet somewhere safe, ok."

Farlan nodded, it seemed he understood. "Ok."

"Now get back to your training before anyone notices."

"And thanks for all your help, this data will be really useful to us." Eren added loudly, patting the boy on his back.

They turned and went back to their seats. Watching a few more practices for cover purposes before they packed up and went to thank Connie.

He was a small, wiry ball of energy with a buzz cut. When they found him he was putting a bunch of shot putters through their paces. Most of them looked as if they could pick him up and throw him just as easily as the shot.

"Did you get what you needed Eren?" He grinned, then turned just as fast and yelled at a 6'4" brick outhouse, "put your damned back into it you miserable weakling, get some power behind it, you look like you're trying to pat it not put it!"

He turned back, sighing, "honestly, some of them are a waste of good muscles, Sacha could do better."

Eren smiled broadly, "I bet she could."

Connie looked at Levi, then back at Eren, "Isn't this one a bit old to be a trainee? Have you been keeping secrets from me Eren Jaeger?" He glanced at Levi again. "He is cute though, I can see why you would."

Levi's face darkened ominously and Eren hastily shook his head. "Definitely not Connie! I admit I wasn't entirely honest but it's not what you're thinking. Levi here is a detective, I'm helping him with a case and we needed some information for it. I can't say any more and please don't mention this further."

Connie smirked, "I see. Ok, your secret's safe with me. Just as long as you're not going to arrest all my team before the meet."

"I have no plans to do that." Levi assured him. Hopefully it was true. "Oh and congratulations."

Connie looked puzzled. "On what?"

"The baby, Eren said it was your fourth I recall."

Both Eren and Connie looked at each other and Eren collapsed laughing.

"What the...! Now what have I said that's so hilarious?"

"It's not a baby," Eren gasped, clutching at Levi's shoulder for support.

"Then what is it?" the detective snarled.

"A potato," Connie grinned.

"A potato!"

Eren wiped his eyes. "Sacha is an Agronomist, she specialises in plant breeding, in particular potatoes. She's just had her fourth variety named after her."

"Well you might have said instead of letting me look an idiot," Levi grumbled.

"Actually she is pregnant," Connie smiled, "we just hadn't told anyone yet, she only found out this week."

"Really!" Eren threw his arms around the smaller man and gave him a hug."That's fantastic news."

"Yeah, we'd almost given up trying."

 

Two hours later Levi, Eren and Farlan were ensconced around a quiet corner table in a diner a few streets away from the lab. There were half a dozen other customers, an elderly couple with their shopping, and four teenage girls giggling over their i-phones.

The waitress removed their empty plates and refilled their drinks.

Once she was out of earshot Levi looked at the teenager across his steaming cup. "So how did you meet Marco?"

"At Isabel's funeral. He approached me after the ceremony. It seems he already knew something about the drugs they'd given her." Farlan paused and took a drink of his soda. "She was eighteen, eighteen, for God's sake! They said she must have had an unknown heart condition," his jaw tightened and his voice trembled with suppressed fury, "bullshit, there was nothing wrong with her until she took those pills." He clenched his fist as it lay on the table. "Sure she got stronger and faster, but she looked flushed all the time, she sweated too much, she got headaches, fainting spells. But she pretended she was fine, insisted they were just vitamin supplements, nobody knew what she was doing, not even the coach. I don't know where she got them, she would never tell me and when I tried to find where she'd hidden them and flush them down the drain she caught me and kicked me out. She never spoke to me again," he ended in a choked voice.

He took another drink to calm himself. "Sorry."

Eren laid his hand gently over the clenched fist, "It's fine, take your time."

Farlan nodded. "Then they found her," he continued, staring blankly at the glass in his hands, his voice low, " just lying in her room. No injuries, nothing. The post mortem showed a massive heart attack, and she was gone. They never found the pills, or if they did nothing was said."  

"So when Marco told me he wanted a cover story to try and infiltrate the racket I was only too willing to help. I didn't need to do much really, just let him take some pictures of us 'training' together, and if anyone approached me confirm that Marco was my personal coach. He took copies of my stats and medical records to back up his story and that was about it."

"Did he succeed in getting the drugs?" Levi asked.

"Maybe. I'm not sure. He told me he'd been negotiating with them over the costs and he'd agreed a price. The last time I spoke to him he was waiting to hear from them about finalising the deal. Then his calls stopped. At first I thought nothing of it since his calls were always irregular. Then I saw an article in the Herald that he'd been reported missing."

"Why didn't you contact the police?" Levi asked sharply.

"I was shit scared by then. If they had done something to Marco maybe I'd be next. They knew all about me. I figured I was safest if I just said nothing at all. I'm not proud of it, but at the time it was all I could think of, not to make it seem I was a threat."

"It wouldn't have helped him anyway," Levi sighed, "by the time he was reported missing he'd been dead at least a month."

"Where did you find him?" Farlan asked.

"Buried in the woods south of the city, but he was killed somewhere else. Did he ever mention the old salt works?"

Farlan's brow creased in thought. "Not by that name, but he did say something about a meeting in the country while he was negotiating with them. He said it was an old ruin of a place in the middle of nowhere."

Levi nodded. "That's probably it. I guess it's an ideal place if you don't want to be seen. Jean told me even the schools stopped visiting when it got too overgrown and dangerous."

"There's one other thing that might help you," Farlan pulled out his wallet and removed an SD card, he passed it over the table to Levi. "This was Marco's, he left it with me a couple of months before he disappeared, he told me to take care of it as insurance. When he went missing I stuck it in my laptop thinking I might find out something that would make it worth going to the police but all of the files said deleted, I don't know why he gave it to me, I just couldn't read anything on it. Maybe you guys will have more luck, I'm not a technophobe but I'm no computer expert either and I can't believe he didn't leave it for a reason."

Levi picked it up. "Beats me, what do you think Eren?"

Eren pulled a small bag from his pocket, took the card and dropped it inside with a small smile. "I think we should leave this to Hanji."

Levi looked bemused. "Hanji? They're an artist aren't they?"

"And a computer genius, who do you think wrote all that software we used to reconstruct the bullet trajectories and reconstruct the face from the skull."

"Hanji did? You mean it's all custom stuff?"

"Yep. If there's anything on this card Hanji will find it."

 

They dropped Farlan off at a taxi rank by the station deciding it would be best for him not to be seen with them if possible.

"Do you need taking back to the lab to get your car?" Levi asked, pulling out into the flow of evening traffic.

"I don't have a car there."

"How do you travel in then, did you want to get the train? You should have said before I pulled out."

"I run in, or sometimes I use my bike. Today I ran."

"You run into work?" Levi glanced at his passenger. "You must be mad."

Eren chuckled, "I only live a couple of miles out and frankly I can run in faster than you can drive in during rush hour. Besides it keeps me in shape."

Levi couldn't disagree with that one. "Well it's a bit late for running now, I'd best take you home."

Eren gave him the directions and it wasn't long before they reached Eren's small suburban house.

Ere released his seatbelt and pulled his bag across from the rear seat. "Come on in, I'll make us some coffee and you can meet Petra, I'm sure she'd love to see a new face."

"I don't want to intrude..."

"Nonsense, I insist, come on."

Levi shrugged and gave in gracefully, another coffee wouldn't go amiss.  

He followed Eren up the path, "You know for a world renowned scientist I expected something a bit more..."

"Flashy?" Eren laughed. "Well it's just me and Petra, we don't need a mansion."

He unlocked the door and they stepped inside. "Petra!" Eren called.

There was a soft thump and a pattering sound and Levi jumped as something bumped into his legs. Eren flicked on the lights and Levi looked down to see a pale ginger cat entwining itself about his ankles and purring loudly.

"I told you she'd like you."

Levi looked at Eren, "Petra?"

"Yep. Come on girl I'll get you some supper." He headed into the kitchen and as soon as she heard the fridge door open Petra abandoned Levi and ran after him.

"Oh, so now you like me, now I'm feeding you, you're a fickle girl Petra."

Levi watched from the doorway as the cat almost tied Eren's legs in a knot trying not to trip over her before he put down the food bowl and she tucked in, instantly losing interest in him now he'd done what she wanted.

"Take a seat Levi I'll put the coffee on."

 

They sat on the couch in the Eren's living room to drink the coffee. As soon as she had eaten her fill Petra joined them, jumping up and promptly parking herself in Levi's lap. She kneaded his thighs until she was satisfied they were to her liking then curled up and closed her eyes.

"You're a cat person, I knew it." Eren watched as Levi unconsciously began stroking her fur and she purred contentedly.

"I wasn't expecting a cat," Levi chuckled, " when you said Petra I figured you meant your wife, or girlfriend."

Eren smiled. "Petra is the only girl I plan on taking home."

Levi thought for a moment, then... "Can I ask you a personal question? You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

The anthropologist nodded. "Fire away."   

"Are you gay?" Before Eren could answer Levi panicked. "Sorry I shouldn't have said that, forget it, please."

"Yes I am."

"Oh."

"Is it a problem?"

"Not at all. I was just thinking back over today, piecing things together and it made sense. I suppose it's an occupational hazard. Sorry if it was rude."

"To be honest I make no secret of it so if you hadn't figured it out..."

"...I'd be a pretty poor detective." Levi smiled ruefully.

Petra pushed herself to her feet, turned around, slapping Levi in the face with her tail as she did so, and jumped off his knees. she headed out of the room and a loud miaow came from the kitchen.

"Looks like she wants to go out for a bit," Eren said, getting to his feet. "I'll just open the door for her."

Levi rose as well, "I'd best be off anyway, I have paperwork still to do tonight. I'll call you later tomorrow to see how Hanji is doing with that SD card. Thanks for the coffee."

"Sure, any time Levi."

Eren let them both out the front door and watched the car drive away. "Well I suppose that was progress of a sort, he didn't find me disgusting at least," he murmured , looking down at his cat.

Petra looked back at him, her green eyes inscrutable as ever. He frowned at her. "You know, you're not much of an agony aunt are you?"

Petra just turned and stalked across the lawn, she had problems of her own, like the annoying tom three doors down. If he tried it one more time he was going to get a bloody nose.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully this is the last plot heavy chapter, we're heading for some action next time.

Ch 6

Once again Levi found himself standing under the hot water of his shower, this time trying to clear his head. The events of the last few days and the last few hours tumbled through his mind, swirling and churning like the water pouring down the drain at his feet. His head was a mass of embarrassment, confusion and doubt. He hated it, he needed a clear head to deal with murder, not this whirlpool of conflicting feelings.

He couldn't believe he'd been so dumb as to ask Eren that question outright, no matter that Eren genuinely didn't seem offended, it was just unprofessional. It had no bearing on them working together and no bearing on the case so why had he blurted it out? Why had he wanted to know? Because he had, right then, no question. He'd looked at those green eyes over his coffee and....fuck! Green eyes. He shook his head, nope, not going there.

He needed to compartmentalise, to put everything connected with Eren and feelings in a box marked irrelevant, dump it in the basement of his memory and lock the door. The only interactions that were appropriate with the anthropologist were those necessary to solving the case, nothing more. Feelings would just be an irrational distraction.

He emerged from the bathroom and went to make a cup of chamomile tea, he needed something to relax himself otherwise he wouldn't get much sleep. Finally he felt calm enough and crawled into bed, hoping his dreams would be confined to scary mountains of paperwork or being shot at, he could handle those.

 

He spent the morning tackling the scary mountain of paperwork, by lunchtime it was down to a merely unpleasant hillock. Most of it was bureaucratic garbage but at least it kept his mind firmly on police work. Lunch was a sandwich grabbed from the coffee shop, probably chicken but the taste was drowned out by so much dressing he couldn't tell anyway. A black coffee from the same chain store was bitter enough to keep him alert long enough to whittle the rest of his in-tray down to one last sheet by the time his phone rang around three. Glancing at the screen he saw it was Eren.

"Ackerman."

"Levi, it's Eren."

"Yes Dr Jaeger, what can I do for you?"

There was a pause at the other end of the phone and a faint sigh. "Hanji has recovered some data from that SD Card, I think you should come and see it."

"Very well, I'll be right over."

 

Eren ended the call and looked at Armin, "I knew it. I'm back to square one."

Armin just sent him a questioning look.

"He called me Dr Jaeger again."

"Well he was at work."

Eren shook his head, "It wasn't just that, it was the way he said it. He's gone back into that shell of his. I really thought he was starting to loosen up."

"You said he didn't seem to care if you were gay, you think he was lying?"

Eren shook his head. "No, I don't think he does care about that. I think he just doesn't believe in relationships other than for work."

"Sounds lonely."

"Yeah. But I bet if you asked him if he was lonely he'd look at you as if you'd grown another head."

Armin gave him a sympathetic smile. "Time to give up then."

Eren laughed. He jumped to his feet and clapped his colleague on the shoulder as they headed to Hanji's office. "Armin please! You know me better than that."

Armin gave a rueful chuckle. "I know you have a masochistic streak a mile wide. Just don't mope around at the lab when it doesn't work out, it upsets the interns."

"I never mope!"

"Sure you don't, I remember that time...."

Eren threw up his hands. "That was once, just once! I was ten and my hamster had died, anyone would be miserable."

 

"So how does this recovery work?" Levi asked as they sat gathered around the screens in Hanji's office.

"Well I used a combination of two recovery methods. The physical acquisition method first which makes a bit by bit copy of the flash drive. That can recover some deleted files and fragments. It also told me we were dealing with a card that had been used in an android device. Now the thing about android and iOS operating systems is that even when you delete the files the system keeps a database file of information. This doesn't overwrite the information but simply marks it as deleted and available for later overwriting. So from that I was able to recover most of the deleted files."

"Nice work," Levi said admiringly. What have we got then?"

" Some of them make interesting reading." Hanji pulled up a file which mostly contained numbers arranged in columns. "This one is a call log, numbers, dates and times. We can't tell much from it yet but we also have a contact list file so from that and our usual resources we should be able to trace the names and numbers and rebuild his call history, let's just hope it wasn't all take out restaurants."

They opened another file. "This one is a document file, just like you would have on your laptop. It seems to contain case notes."

Levi was already scanning down the entries, it was like a diary. Marco had listed each piece of information gained with a date and as he got closer to the source there were names and meeting places. "This is gold. Print me a copy of this and I'll start tracking down the names and places." Hanji nodded and pressed print. "Any other files?" he asked.

"There are some that might be more use to Erwin, they seem to be full of chemical formulae, as though Marco was working out what the drug was and what they would need to make it."

Levi nodded and looked up at Erwin, "Well once you've determined which drug it is we can probably check out the suppliers and find out how much raw material they bought and how much of this stuff is floating around out there, we need to find it all and get rid of it."

"I've narrowed it down to a variant of a drug known as LGD-2226. Hopefully this will let me pinpoint the exact formula."

Hanji fetched the printout and passed it to Levi, he laid the sheets on the desk and scanned down them. Some of the names repeated, most were just first names, or obvious nicknames. None were familiar to Levi, though his colleagues in the DEA might be able to identify some of them. One name however drew Eren's attention.

"Armin, you remember Nile Dawk."

Armin's expression looked like he'd just trodden in something even he would find nasty. "Wish I didn't, slimy piece of pond scum. Don't tell me his name is there?"

"There is a Nile mentioned, no surname but Dawk is working at Farlan's college now, Connie told me once. He works in the labs but Connie said he helps out with the Football team as well. Gives them advice on nutrition or something."

"He _was_ a chemistry major. You think it could be him? I guess it's not a common name."

"It might explain how Isabel got her pills, if he has access to the sports teams." Levi said grimly."I'll get someone to keep an eye on him and we'll make a few enquiries into his background, see what we can dig up. You two know him already?" He looked from Eren to Armin, who shuffled uncomfortably.

Eren nodded. "He was at college with us, just for one year, he was already a third year when we started. He was bad news all round. There were rumours he was supplying drugs and other things on campus. He never got caught with anything though."

Levi had a feeling there was more but he wasn't going to push it unless necessary. His gut told him that Armin especially had some very unpleasant memories of Nile Dawk.

The next couple of days were spent pursuing the information extracted from the card. Levi was busy co-ordinating the surveillance on Dawk and liaising with the DEA who were able to put names to several of the people mentioned in Marco's log. Mostly they were low level muscle, hired thugs and bully boys with long rap sheets, who would work for any dealer that could pay. In all likelihood they were there as guards and gophers. They'd be better off the streets but they weren't the ones Levi was after. He wanted the guys in charge, the ones who either killed Marco or gave the orders to eliminate him.

Some of the phone numbers on the call log could be traced to addresses, they checked them out, but mostly they were the hang outs of minor dealers or pushers, none of them seemed to be high enough up in the food chain to have much influence. It did suggest though that the dope was not the only drug this group were dealing in. There were black markets for regular anabolic steroids and of course the whole gamut of 'recreational drugs' that the DEA spent their lives trying to clean off the streets.

 

After two days of enforced abstinence Eren needed a fix, a Levi fix. It wouldn't have been as bad if he hadn't been sure that Levi was trying to put distance between them again.

He scoured through his reports on the body, the injuries, the weapon he'd recovered, Erwin's toxicology and pathology data, in a desperate attempt to find something that would give him an excuse to call Levi. In the end it was Erwin who came to his rescue, he strolled into Eren's office and dropped a folder on top of the piles already on Eren's desk.

"Here, I'll take pity on you, you can tell him I've finally managed to calculate the drug formula and its ingredients. I've prepared a list of suppliers for the materials. They're pretty specialised and some of them are restricted so the people providing them have a lot of questions to answer as well."

Eren flipped through the report and smiled gratefully at Erwin, "Thanks a lot."

Erwin threw him a sympathetic smile. "Well I could just have e-mailed it to him but I couldn't stand watching you wallow in self pity any longer."

 

It was while Levi was in Eren's office reading Erwin's results that they got a break. One of the addresses still to be checked out was in a much more upmarket neighbourhood. A call came in from the surveillance team watching Dawk that he was heading for that part of town.

"Tell them just to keep observing for now. If he does go to that address let me know how long he's there. Was he carrying anything when he left? No. Ok. Keep me posted, I'm over at the Lab." Levi closed his phone. "Looks like your hunch about Dawk may be right. Can you pull me up an aerial shot of this address?" He scribbled it on a scrap of paper and gave it to Eren.

Eren whistled, "Nice place, must have cost a few million." They both studied the extensive property filling the screen. There was a main building with what looked like a garage block to one side, a large pool, tennis court, a huge landscaped garden and a group of rectangular buildings clustered in a corner away from the house and accessed by a drive around the perimeter. They were screened from the main house by a stand of trees and shrubbery.

Levi eyed them speculatively. "Now those look interesting but I guess we can't get any closer without getting in there."

Eren clicked a few keys and the screen zoomed in without pixellating the image one iota.

"Wow! I guess this isn't regular Google Map then?" Levi chuckled. "They definitely look like workshops of some kind, and here there seems to be a stack of plastic drums. Chemicals maybe?"

Eren gave a nod. "Could be. There's a substantial vent on the end wall of this one, it looks rather like the ones we have here, maybe it's for fume extraction. You need something in case a process goes wrong and fills the place with toxic fumes. There are more regular vents on the roofs as well. Also," Eren dragged the image a bit to focus on the driveway, "See here," He traced a pale line along the grass edging the drive. "There's been a long trench put in here. My guess would be for power and water supplies to those buildings. I doubt they were laid by a utility company either."

"They're pretty well concealed too, behind those trees. If we want to see what's going on we'd need to approach through these woods here and then get through this hedge." Levi indicated a scrubby patch of undeveloped woodland beyond the property's rear boundary.

Levi sat back and pulled out his phone again, he called the precinct. "Ackerman here, any progress on Dawk?"

"He did? Really? How much stuff? And then he went straight to the house. Is he still there? Ok, let me know if he leaves. Can you get me some DEA people for tonight, I want to check the place. Yes for drugs. What, nobody? You sure? Dammit! Ok leave it with me." He slammed the phone shut in irritation.

"Would you believe all the DEA staff are on a big drugs bust that's going down on the other side of town tonight, just when I need a couple. Dawk called at one of the places on Erwin's list of suppliers and loaded up his trunk with stuff before he went to the house. I'd say they're brewing up another batch of drugs. But with nobody available I can't go check."

Eren grinned at him. "No problem, Armin, Jean and I can do it, we're all fully qualified, probably more so where the chemistry is concerned. And before you say you can't take civilians we are all authorised to attend crime scenes, and we've all undertaken full self defence training so we can look after ourselves."

"I don't like it."

"Got an alternative?"

Levi scowled, but he really didn't want to waste another day. "Ok but we wait until they leave the huts for the night, and I can't give you guns."

"We wouldn't want them anyway. I'm sure you can protect us."

"But who's going to protect me?" Levi muttered under his breath.


	7. Chapter 7

He was going to die, he knew it, either one of the three idiots in the car with him would do it, or Erwin and his Captain would do it. Probably with relish. He should never have agreed to let them help, they were like three fanboys buzzing with glee when their ultimate fantasy suddenly became reality.

"If you three don't calm down I'm kicking you out right here, I'll do the stakeout myself, I thought you were scientists, how old are you?" he shouted above the excited chattering.

"Sorry Levi, we just don't get much chance to do stuff like this," Eren apologised, hissing at Armin & Jean to shut up.

"Well if you carry on like that you won't get another, you'll be on a slab yourselves, they'll spot you in thirty seconds. And don't think I'm gonna save your dumb hides either."

"Don't worry Levi, we'll be fine once we get there," Armin said, one hand clamped over Jean's mouth and a warning scowl on his face at the intern.

"I hope so, you have a job to do tonight, it's not a game we're playing." He turned the car off the track and pulled gently to a halt behind a large overgrown thicket, dousing the headlights.

Spreading out the sketch map they'd made of the area he shone his torch on it. "Now  Armin, Jean, you head to the right, work your way round and scout out the huts from the far side." The two of them nodded.

"You got all your stuff?"

Jean nodded and patted the bag beside him. "I've got all the camera gear and Armin has the evidence kit."

"Phones on silent & vibrate?"

They nodded.

"Good, watch your footing, take your time, keep it quiet and send me a message once you're in position, and for God's sake be careful I don't want to have to explain your deaths to Erwin. I'm pretty sure he'd flay me alive and Captain Zacharius would happily nail my skin to the precinct wall as a grim reminder of how dumb I was tonight."

Armin and Jean slipped carefully out of the car and headed into the undergrowth, Jean leading the way. Levi watched them go surprised at how quietly they moved. "It's like they switched to 'stealth mode'," he muttered.

"They know how to be serious when necessary, and Jean spends his vacations doing wildlife photography, he's used to tracking his targets in silence." Eren smiled.

"And what about you? Are you a ninja in your spare time?" Levi asked, slipping the maglite into his pocket and checking his pistol.

Eren laughed softly, "hardly." He opened the car door and they both slid out closing it with a soft clunk.

"Well do your best," Levi said and began leading off to the left to approach the huts from the other side. He figured if worst came to worst having a gun meant he could draw the suspects out of the huts and away towards the main house, leaving Eren, Armin and Jean to sneak in and get the evidence.

 

"You think they'll ever leave tonight?" Eren murmured in a low voice.

"Who knows? Hopefully they will need to sleep at some point, if not we may have to do this again tomorrow. Do you have any idea how long this stuff takes to make?"

"Not really, Erwin said just one part of the process, breaking down the amine compounds with solvents could take between 9 and 72 hours with an optimum between 12 and 30 hours then the resultant compounds can be converted to salts. The exact solvents and salts produced vary depending on the compound you want. I'd assume that the liquid salts would need to be converted to solids by evaporation or precipitation so that means more time..."

Levi's brain was beginning to ache. He laid his palm over Eren's mouth to stop the chemistry lecture. "Ok, so the bottom line is this whole thing could take maybe a week to make a batch?" he said, taking his hand away.

Eren looked at him and nodded. "If they have been mixing the amines with solvents tonight I'd expect them to leave once the process has started, there would be no reason to watch it."

"Then we have a hope they'll leave soon." He wriggled himself a little comfier in the long grass and resumed watching the target.

Eren lay beside him scanning the huts with his own night vision binoculars. "Why the cold shoulder Levi, was it something I did?"

"What?"

"You avoided me for two days after that evening. I'd like to know why."

"I was busy, your coffee invitations weren't work related." Levi's tone was matter of fact.

Eren gave a sad sigh. "So you only want a work relationship, I thought we were friends." he glanced at Levi, it was underhanded but..." Petra misses you, you know? She was pining the next day. She really took to you. She curled up where you sat on the couch and wouldn't leave all night. Normally she sleeps with me even if I try and kick her out. You've stolen my cat's heart Levi."

"Your cat is an idiot."

"Guess that makes two of us then," Eren muttered to himself under his breath.

Levi gave him a puzzled look, "What did you say?"

"Nothing. Hey. It looks like they're moving out."

They watched in silence for several minutes as three people exited the building's main door carrying various containers and boxes, they took them round to the back of a small pick-up truck and tossed them in, it seemed they were empty. Two of them clambered into the truck, turned it and drove away. The third figure got into Dawk's car and followed them.

Levi's phone vibrated. A text from Jean asked if it was time to move in.

"Give it another fifteen minutes to make sure." Levi replied, showing it to Eren, who nodded.

 

Armin and Jean emerged from behind the brambles they had been using as cover and began to edge forward. Slipping from one piece of cover to another they made it to the rear of the largest hut. Working down it they looked for a way in. There was a rear door and Jean tried it cautiously. It was locked. Moving further down Armin tapped his back and pointed. The end window was open, just an inch but with luck they would be able to release the catch.

"I'll go first, I'm smallest," Armin murmured.

Jean nodded and helped him up until he could slide his fingers along reaching for the latch. There was a soft click and he swung the pane open, wriggling his body inside and dropping to the floor.

Jean was about to jump up himself when there was a muffled bang and a burning pain shot through his left side. He looked down and saw a dark damp stain spreading across his shirt and a hole punched through the side of the hut.

 

At the sound of the shot Levi and Eren froze and dropped into a crouch. Levi slid his pistol from its holster.

"Stay here," he ordered and darted the last few yards to the hut, flattening himself into the shadow of the end wall. He edged towards the back of the hut, freezing when he heard a shuffling noise. Cocking his pistol he waited as it drew closer.

"Fuck!" he exhaled as he saw Jean, one hand clamped round his ribs.

"Armin's inside," Jean hissed, grimacing at the pain. "I'll be ok it's just grazed a rib but it hurts like hell. Must have still been someone in there."

"Can you get back to the car?"

Jean gave a nod.

"Then go, I'll go after Armin."

Fortunately Jean had enough sense not to try playing the hero, and he headed in the direction of the trees.

Levi turned and made his way to the front of the hut, listening carefully. Voices came from inside, but they were muffled and he suspected they were still in the rear part of the building, maybe it was a separate room. He eased open the main door, cursing himself for not noticing that the gang had not locked it when they left. That should have told him someone was still inside.

The room was full of laboratory equipment, benches and vats of some kind. It looked a lot like Armin's room at the Forensic Lab. He had no idea what most of the stuff did, and he didn't need to know. All that mattered was navigating his way silently through it in the dim light of a half full moon that had risen outside. One misstep and the game would be up. The voices were a little louder now and coming from a room on the far side, the door outlined by a thin line of light.

"You're still a pretty boy Armin, how many guys have you had since me I wonder? I think I'm going to enjoy playing with you this time. Maybe take my time and see just how much it takes to break you. Your crazy friend won't save you this time, you know."

"You never change do you Nile, you're just as much a coward and a scumbag as you were back in college!"

Levi heard the slap and grunt as Armin clearly paid for his insolence. He gritted his teeth and reached for the door handle, praying it was unlocked. He needed to put a stop to this now. The handle turned in his hand..

Crash!

"Ugh!"

Something hit the floor and slid into a cabinet with a clang.

"Aaagh!"  

Smash!

"Take that!"

Levi spun round to see a flushed and panting Eren looking contemptuously down at a figure sprawled on the floor in a sea of broken glass. As he watched the man edged his hand out towards a fallen gun, only for Eren to stamp a foot on his wrist with an ominous crack.

"Don't you dare," he growled, picking up the gun with a gloved hand and dropping it into an evidence bag pulled from his pocket.

With that Levi was flung back against the wall as the door beside him was thrown open and Dawk emerged, a knife at Armin's throat.  

"What the fuck! You again! Are you two joined at the bloody hip or something?"

"Let Armin go!" Eren snarled at him.

Dawk laughed, it was an unpleasant sound, "Not a chance, blondie here is my ticket out of this place. You try anything and he gets a quick trachaeotomy."

The expression in Dawk's eyes turned to fear as he felt the cold touch of Levi's pistol in the back of his neck.

"Drop the knife."

Dawk paused, obviously weighing his chances.

"You want to gamble on my reflexes Dawk?" Levi said coldly.

There was a clatter as the knife fell to the floor.

"Now let Dr Arlert go."

Dawk turned and thrust Armin back into Levi who stumbled slightly and fell back against the wall. He looked up expecting to see Dawk push past Eren and make his escape. What he actually saw was Eren dropping Dawk to the floor with a rapid series of roundhouse kicks and combination punches that left him a groaning heap on top of his colleague with the broken wrist.

Pushing himself off the wall he reached for his cuffs and crouched down snapping them securely around Dawk's wrists.  He hauled him to his feet and sat him on a chair where he slumped, still winded from the barrage of Eren's blows.

Levi lifted his fellow gang member's  head and looked at his face. "Well, well, if it isn't Woerman, I thought you were still doing a 20 stretch for pimping rent boys?"

The man grimaced and smirked at Levi, "Got out on parole for good behaviour."

" Changed your business from selling flesh to doping it eh? Well you're going right back inside."

"I want a doctor, that bastard deliberately broke my wrist."

The smile Levi gave him was chilling, "He _is_ a doctor. Would you like him to examine it for you?"

Woerman looked up at Eren and gave a shake of the head. "I'll wait."

Levi rose to his feet. "I'll call this in, you two ok to examine this place for evidence?"

Armin looked at him, worry written across his face. "Is Jean ok? Dawk shot at me and the bullet went right through the wall, Jean was right behind it."

Levi sighed, "He took a graze to the ribs but he said he was fine. I sent him back to the car. I'll go check on him once backup gets here, I'm not leaving you two alone in here with this pair."

Eren looked at his friend's concerned face. "I'll go, Armin can manage here. I'll call you and let you know how he's doing."

Armin gave him a small smile. "Thanks Eren." Then he set to work checking and bagging samples of the compounds all over the benches.

Levi made his call then sat Woerman in a chair next to Dawk. He pulled off his tie and trussed Woerman's ankles together with it in lieu of a second pair of handcuffs. Then he pulled up a third seat and sat facing them, cradling his Glock.

"Now tell me about Marco Bodt?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are with the final chapter. I don't want to drag this story out longer and it seems an appropriate place to end it since I'm not a smut writer. Perhaps if I dream up a decent plot one day I might revisit these two, who knows. But for now that's all folks and thanks for all the great comments.

"Jean!"

A low groan came from the open rear door of Levi's car.

Eren looked inside, Jean was slumped in the back seat, a hand pressed to his side. Eren could see the dark stain covering the side of his shirt even in the semi-darkness.

"Jeez! Let me look at that Jean."

Jean grimaced as he drew his hand back, revealing the torn cloth. "I'll be fine."

"I'll let the medics decide that. Levi said there's a basic first aid kit in the trunk, I'll see what I can do to clean it up."

Eren rummaged in the trunk and extracted the small plastic box. Inside were sealed dressings, antiseptic, scissors and bandages. He cut through the torn shirt until he could fold it clear of the wound. There was a three inch gash where the bullet had sliced through.

"Looks like it missed your ribs but you're going to need a fair few stitches. I'll clean it up and dress it," he said, reaching for some antiseptic wipes.

"Is Armin alright, I heard shouting?" Jean, winced as Eren touched him, "I should never have let him go first."

"Armin is fine now, and if you'd gone first it could be him sat here. I doubt you could have stopped him anyway."

"Alright now? What happened?" Jean demanded, grabbing Eren's arm.

"Dawk was still in the room, he's the one who shot you, though he was aiming at Armin. I guess he missed in the dark."

"Bastard!"

Eren smiled grimly. "He tried to get away with Armin as a hostage but Levi stopped him with a gun to his head."

"Thank God!"

Having cleaned off most of the blood he placed a sterile dressing over the gash and secured it with tape and a bandage around Jean's torso. He stepped back. " Ok I'm going back now I'll send the medics to you as soon as they arrive."

Jean looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. "The hell you will! I'm coming with you. I wanna check on Armin."

"I told you he's fine."

"I'm still coming!"

Eren sighed, "Can you walk?"

"Yeah, and if I can't I'll crawl."

He gave a resigned nod. "Come on then, just don't open up that cut any further, I don't want you to bleed to death before we get there."

 

When they reached the huts again they were swarming with police. Armin seemed to be directing the collecting of evidence from the laboratory within and Levi was standing to one side with a tall blond who was glaring at him.

"Just what the hell were you thinking Ackerman? Taking three untrained civilians on a stakeout is bad enough but then you let them enter the premises and one of them gets shot. I just don't believe it. You're the most experienced detective in the precinct, you stick to protocol like glue, why?" He shook his head. "God knows what Doctor Smith is going to say when he finds one of his staff is in the hospital, you'll be lucky if you only get busted down to traffic!"

"It wasn't Levi's fault Captain, we all knew what we were doing, we talked him into it."

Zacharius looked up. "Dr Jaeger isn't it?"

Eren nodded.

"That's not the point. He shouldn't have done it, and he knows it."

"But..."

Levi looked up and shook his head. "The Captain's right, Eren. I should have waited another day for the DEA guys to go in. Now go and get Jean to the medics, he's dripping."

"Shit! Come on Jean." Eren helped Jean across to the ambulance and handed him over to the EMT waiting. "I'll go take over from Armin."

Jean nodded, pain clearly washing across his face as the EMT checked his dressings and then gave him a shot of painkiller.

 

Eren wandered across to where Armin was checking and bagging samples. "Armin, I'll take over now."

Armin looked up at him with worried eyes. "Where's Jean?"  

He's over with the EMTs he'll need stitches but the bullet just sliced the flesh, he'll be fine."

Armin visibly relaxed and straightened up, peeling off his gloves with a sigh of relief.

Eren raised a quizzical brow. "You were pretty worried about him then?"

Armin gave him a grin. "You know once you get past that brash facade he's rather sweet, I'm kind of glad you turned him down."

Eren cocked his head and smiled thoughtfully to himself as Armin headed over to the ambulance.

"And just what are you grinning about Dr Jaeger, I wouldn't have thought there was much cause for levity tonight?" a stern voice behind him said.

"Ah Erwin, I guess the police called you out, sorry."

Erwin's eyes followed the line of Eren's gaze and watched as Armin talked softly to Jean, left hand entwined with Jean's and his right resting on Jean's cheek.

Erwin let out a gentle sigh, "So that's it eh?"

"Looks like it," Eren murmured.

"Well good luck to them. Now I suppose I'd best go rescue your detective from Mike before he completes his career suicide."

"I'd be grateful."

Erwin grinned wolfishly, "how grateful?"

"Erwin!"

The pathologist laughed, "I'm kidding, but in return I want all your paperwork up to date by the end of the week."

Eren groaned at the thought, "Yes boss."

 

In the end Levi escaped with a mild reprimand for not following proper procedures. Erwin's assurance that the Forensic Lab would not pursue the matter, and in fact considered its staff to be equally culpable, helped. As did the amount of evidence they had seized. This included completed drugs, raw materials, all the equipment and, most importantly, a laptop containing information on the drug research and processing together with data on testing it and their supply chains.

It seemed that the group had been refining the drug for some time and using susceptible athletes like Isabel as test guinea pigs without their knowledge. Isabel was an early casualty of a batch that turned out to be too strong, after her death they adjusted the formula and dosage in the tablets.

That night they had arrested Woerman, who turned out to be the financial backer, and owner of the house, Dawk, the main chemist, and two minor heavies that they caught in the main building. Several other members were rounded up over the next few days, one just as he was about to board his plane to Mexico.

Dawk steadfastly refused to say anything about Marco, it was the admission of one of the two grunts who had helped Dawk drag him out of the pond and bury the body that finally made him talk.

"So why bother dragging him out of the pond in the first place, it seems a pretty good place to leave a body?" Levi asked the sullen faced man slouched in the chair across the table from him.

Dawk shrugged. "He had some of the drugs on him, or at least we thought he had. We searched the body thoroughly once he was out but there was no trace of them."

"So why not just toss him back in?"

"We knew he'd been collecting information on us by then, we figured he could have passed it on already. That's why we had to get rid of him, but we couldn't risk anyone finding the body and the drugs on it. We used the salterns to store supplies and meet with customers. For all we knew he'd already passed on the location and the cops could have been on their way. So we moved all our stuff out and took him with us. Dumped him in the forest on the other side of town, well away from Woerman's place too."

"He still had the drugs."

"Where?"

Levi gave a short laugh, "He'd swallowed them. We found the traces during the autopsy. And he had passed on his information, just not to us."

Dawk sat upright. "Who to?" he growled.

"That is something you don't need to know. Suffice it to say that it reached us in the end."

"Sneaky bastard!"

 

 

"So he's being charged with the murder of Marco, attempted murder of Armin, wounding Jean, and supplying the drugs that killed Isabel as well as the trafficking and doping offences. He should be inside for good with that lot." Eren commented as they sat in his office a couple of weeks later.

"Let's hope so," Armin shuddered, "I never want to see Dawk's ugly face again."

"There's the trial yet, you'll need to give evidence." Levi reminded him.

"Ugh! Yeah I guess, well after that then at least."  Armin conceded.

Levi looked at Jean "How is your wound now?"

"Healing up nicely, I'm sorry about the blood in your car though."

Levi shrugged. "Couldn't be helped. The valeter's managed to get it out anyway. At least you didn't puke, that stink is near impossible to remove."

Armin glanced at his watch then stood up. "Come on Jean, it's time we cleaned out the roaches and checked on those mould samples.

"Roaches?" Levi asked with thinly disguised distaste.

"Giant burrowing roaches, from Australia, they can grow to over 3 inches long, but they don't have wings, they're so cute," Armin enthused.

Levi facepalmed. "Oh God I've set him off now!"

"Come on Armin, I don't think Levi shares your love of bugs, he's going an odd shade of green," Jean smirked as he led Armin out of the office.

"But they're so ecologically valuable, eating all the leaf litter and recycling the nutrients..." Armin's voice faded as he was hurried away to his room.

Eren passed Levi a glass of water and sat down on the couch beside him. "Are you ok? You do look a little queasy."

Levi nodded and took a sip of the drink. "Why roaches, the filthy, disgusting things. Why not butterflies or something?"

Eren shrugged, "I guess he just likes the creepy kinds."

Levi gave a shudder. "I feel all itchy now just thinking about them."

"Want me to scratch your back?" Eren offered, grinning.

Levi looked sideways at him.  "Are you flirting with me Dr Jaeger?"

"And if I am?"

Levi took a deep breath and sighed. "I told you I'd prefer to keep this strictly professional. Relationships complicate everything, I know that too well."

"Something happened then, to make you feel that way?"

Levi stared down at the glass in his hand. "My partner. He died because I hesitated too long. He hurt his leg, I should have gone after the perp straight away, but I stayed with him. By the time I moved the bastard had got another weapon, he shot us both. I survived, Eld didn't. If I hadn't let my feelings for him cloud my judgement he'd still be alive."

Eren smiled sadly. "I understand. But I don't think you would make that mistake twice. Besides I doubt I'll be allowed to go chasing crooks with you for a long, long time after this case, if ever. I'll be stuck safe and sound in my lab. The one who will be worrying will be me."

Levi looked at him. "Then don't worry. I can look after myself."

Eren gave a wry chuckle. "I can't really help it."

"Well I guess I can't stop you, more fool you."

Eren's right hand slid over Levi's left, "So do I get a  chance?" he whispered, looking into Levi's stubborn grey eyes hopefully.

Levi put down his glass and reached around with his other hand to cup Eren's jaw gently. "You really are the most annoying, persistent, brat I've ever met," he muttered as he brought their lips together. After a moment he pulled back, "Just don't make me regret this," he added, before kissing Eren again.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah I admit it, I used to write for the Bones fandom. It's a hard habit to break, but I will.


End file.
